The 14-year-old girl, Abigail Kopf, was randomly targeted and shot last month by cab driver, Jason Dalton and declared dead by medics when her heart stopped. The schoolgirl’s parents Gene and Vickie Kopf were brought into the operating theatre to be allowed to say goodbye.
But after Abigail’s sobbing mother rested her head to her daughter’s chest and detected a faint heartbeat, she was resuscitated and put on a ventilator. And, despite warnings to her parents that the teen would likely be brain damaged, doctors have confirmed she walked out of hospital following her release.
Dr Aaron Lane-Davies, medical director of Bronson Children’s Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan, US, said: “The pace of her progress is exceptional.
“It will be a long journey ahead, but she is regaining her functions more quickly than expected for someone with an extensive brain injury.”
Dalton, 45, has admitted killing six people during the shooting spree as he drove passengers for cabbie-booking app Uber in Kalamazoo on February 20. Describing the attack Gene said it was a scene that “no horror movie will ever match”.
Recalling seeing Abigail critically ill, her mum Vickie said:
“It’s an image no human being will ever get out of their head. And every night, when I close my eyes, that’s the image I see. And I don’t know if it will ever fade.”
Dalton is facing six murder charges, two assault with intent to kill raps, and firearm offences.
The victims were Richard Smith, 53, and his 17-year-old son Tyler; Dorothy Brown, 74; Barbara Hawthorne, 68; Mary Lou Nye, 62; and Mary Jo Nye, 60.
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